necessary to connect them together; but these disadvantages were more than compensated by the diminished weight and impetuosity of the stream, in consequence of being separated into so many channels, and the solidity given to the lengthened structure, by having such considerable abutments to support it at different points. CHAP. LVII. 1809. 36. preparations Failure at After mature deliberation, Napoleon resolved to attempt the passage at the same time at both points. Lannes was charged with the undertaking at Nussdorf; Napoleon's Massena at Lobau. This double set of operations, it was to effect the hoped, would distract the attention of the enemy, and passage. enable the Emperor to select, in the end, that one for the Nussdorf. real passage where the least difficulties were to be over- May 13. come. Lannes, in the first instance, attempted to surprise a passage at Nussdorf, and pushed forward six hundred men to the island of Schwarze Lacken, which lies, as already mentioned, near the northern bank at that point; but this advanced guard was speedily beset by superior forces, which General Hiller despatched from his side of the river, and before any fresh succours could arrive from the southern shore, vigorously assailed, and compelled to capitulate. This check, joined to the obvious difficulty of establishing such a force as could maintain itself in an island so near the north bank, and separated by so wide and impetuous a current from the southern, induced the Emperor to relinquish all serious 1 Pel. ii. 262, intentions of effecting the passage there; and he, in consequence, bent all his attention to the island of Lobau, 212, 216. where Massena was charged with the enterprise.1 265. Jom. iii. 195. Stut. efforts to May 13. Indefatigable were the efforts made by all ranks, from Napoleon to the humblest soldier, for the prosecution of 37. this great work. The inexhaustible arsenal of Vienna His vigorous supplied in abundance all the stores and implements effect a pasnecessary for its success; and the prudent foresight of sage at Lobau. the Emperor had already provided a flotilla of boats, drawn from many different quarters, and transported by land carriage to the Danube, which were easily converted into the materials of a bridge. Five days were consumed in these preparations; on the sixth, every thing being in May 19. readiness, the enterprise was commenced. So anxious was the Emperor for the success of this undertaking, that he stationed himself on the southern bank as the troops CHAP. 1809. 1 Pel. iii. 270, 273. Stut. 222, 224. 38. Passage of the river. May 19. were embarking, minutely examined and assigned to each the place he was to occupy in the vessel, superintended the distribution of cartridges to the soldiers, and addressed a few words to almost every individual man. With such secresy had Massena's preparations been conducted, in the narrow channel of the Danube near Vienna, and behind the leafy screen of the Prater, that no danger was anticipated by the Austrians in that quarter; and although the posts in the island of Lobau were daily relieved, they had not been particularly strengthened on that occasion.1 At ten at night on the 19th, all things being in readiness, the first boats pulled off from the shore, and, steering round the intermediate islands, made straight for that of Lobau, where the Imperialists were first apprised of their approach by their keels striking on the shore. Instantly leaping into the water, the tirailleurs rushed forward into the thickets, and being constantly fed by reinforcements from the rear, soon expelled the Austrians from the isle. Masses of infantry were immediately after passed over, who soon secured the lodgement, and rendered this important post safe from attack. At the same time, other detachments in like manner took possession of the intermediate isles; and the material points of the passage being thus secured, all hands were instantly set to the commencement of the bridges which were to connect them with the northern bank. The depth and rapidity of the current at that period, when the melting of the Alpine snows had already commenced, presented very formidable difficulties; but all were overcome by the ardour and activity of the French engineers. Sixty-eight large boats had been collected, and nine huge rafts; they made the bridge of the most solid materials as far as Lobau; but from that island to the opposite shore of the Marchfield, it was necessary to construct it of pontoons. With such 2 Pel. ii. 270, vigour, however, was the enterprise conducted, that by noon on the following day the whole was completed, and the leading columns of Massena's corps instantly 63, 71, 73. began to defile over in great strength to the opposite bank.2 275. Jom. iii. 196, 197. Stut. 224, 227. Sav. iv. While this important operation was in progress in the neighbourhood of Vienna, the Archduke Charles, relying CHAP. LVII. 1809. 39. Lintz and on the prescribed co-operation of the Archduke John, with the army of Italy, through the Tyrolean mountains, had made a serious attack on the bridge of Lintz, in the upper part of the Danube. Kollowrath, at the head of twenty- Operations of five thousand men, there commenced an attack on the the Archduke on the Upper Wirtemburghers under Vandamme, to whom that com- Danube, at munication was intrusted. Profiting by their superiority Krems. of force, the Imperialists in the first instance obtained May 17. considerable advantages; and that important post was on the point of falling into the hands of the enemy, when Bernadotte came up with the Saxons, nearly thirty thousand strong. The combat was no longer equal; and Kollowrath finding himself greatly outnumbered, and having received no advices of the approach of the Archduke John from the direction of Salzburg, was compelled to desist from his enterprise, and sustained a loss of several hundred men and six guns in his retreat. Two days afterwards, preparations were made for crossing the river by the Austrians at Krems, which gave serious disquiet to Napoleon, who ordered up in haste the whole corps of Davoust, which was stationed in echelon at Melk, and along the road from thence by St Polten to Vienna. May 19. But these demonstrations against his rear, so far from diverting the Emperor from his original design of crossing at Lobau, and giving battle to the Archduke on the northern bank, only made him the more intent upon the immediate prosecution of his enterprise, by showing that the enemy's army was, in part at least, removed from the scene of action, and bringing, at the same time, vividly before his mind the dangers of his situation, with a long line of communication beset by so many dangers in his rear, and the necessity of instantly bringing the war to a conclusion by a decisive victory under the walls of Vienna. He pressed the march of his troops across the bridge of Lobau with the utmost 224. Pel. ii. anxiety; they defiled all the 20th, and the whole of the 268, 270. succeeding night, without intermission; and by daybreak on the 21st, forty thousand men were already assembled in battle array on the northern side.1 Meanwhile, the Archduke Charles, with the great body of his forces, lay on the woody heights of the Bisamberg the fires of his bivouacs illuminated at night the whole of that quarter of the heavens; and already, by revealing 1 Stut. 220, Jom. iii. 197. Sav. iv. 74. CHAP. 1809. 40. The Arch French who the magnitude of the enemy's force, inspired the French soldiers with gloomy presentiments as to the issue of the contest which was approaching. From this elevated position, the plain beyond Vienna towards the Simmerduke resolves ing appeared to be enveloped in clouds of dust; but as to attack the they at intervals cleared away, the glitter of bayonets had crossed. and helmets in the sun's rays, seen even at that distance, all following one direction, indicated a grand movement towards Kaiser-Ebersdorf. In effect, having perceived from that lofty ridge, by means of telescopes, both the preparations made for crossing at Lobau, and the continued march of Davoust's corps along the southern bank of the river, from Melk towards the capital, the Archduke conceived, with reason, that a favourable opportunity had now occurred of falling with his concentrated forces upon half the French army, before the remainder was crossed over, and possibly reducing it to extremities, even in sight of the other portion on the opposite bank, and while yet the columns in rear were only wending their way in toilsome march towards the capital. Impressed with these ideas, orders were sent to the advanced posts on the edge of the Marchfield towards Lobau, to fall back after a merely nominal resistance, the cavalry, which had been all advanced to the edge of the river, were recalled; while the whole strength of the army was collected on the Bisamberg, concealed from the enemy, but ready to fall with its accumulated masses upon the first corps which should be transported across. At the same time, instructions were sent to Kollowrath, Nordman, and the officers in command farther up the river, to collect a quantity of boats to be laden with heavy materials and combustibles, and, when the proper season arrived, to be detached, so that they might be borne down by the force of the swollen current against the enemy's bridges. In truth, it was evident that Napoleon's overWeening confidence in his good fortune had at last brought him into a situation full of danger, and that, with fatal rashness, he had exposed himself to the most perilous chance in war, that of being attacked by greatly superior forces in an open plain, with a great river traversed by a single bridge, recently constructed and liable to destruction, in his rear.1 1 Archduke Official Ac Charles's count of 383. Stut. Pel. ii. 275, 277. : LVII. 1809. 41. Austrian plan The attack. May 21. Anxiety for the great events which were approaching, CHAP. caused many a noble heart to throb during the night in the Austrian host; and already, as the morning dawned, thousands of aching eyes were turned in the direction of Lobau and the Marchfield, where, even at that early and order of hour, a great accumulation of force was visible. march of troops across the bridge continued incessant, and all the reports from the outposts announced that the lines in their front were rapidly widening and extending. With exulting hearts the army received orders at sunrise to stand to arms: the advantages of their situation were obvious even to the meanest sentinel; the noble array which was pouring across the bridges before them, into the plains at their feet, seemed a devoted host, blindly rushing upon destruction. The vast plain of the Marchfield, stretching from the foot of the Bisamberg to the margin of the Danube, lay spread like a carpet before the front of the line, and appeared, from the absence of every obstruction, to be the destined theatre of some great event. The officers around him urged the Archduke to commence the attack early in the morning, and while as yet the whole of Massena's corps was not pared over; but while the enemy was making a false moverent was not the moment to interrupt or warn him of his danger. Instead of acceding to their suggestions, that able commander ordered the arms to be piled, and the troops to dine; following thus the maxim of the great generals of antiquity, that, even with the bravest troops, it is of the last importance to commence a battle with the strength of the men recently recruited by food. At twelve o'clock, the movement of the enemy being sufficiently pronounced, and retreat in presence of so great a host impossible, the signal to advance was given. The men received it with loud shouts and enthusiastic acclamations; joyful war-songs, accompanied by Turkish music, resounded through the air; long-continued vivats arose on all sides, as the Archduke Charles, the saviour of Germany, rode along the lines of the second column, at whose head he had taken his station. Every breast panted with anxious desire and deserved confidence for the decisive moment, and the finest weather favoured the awful scene. The circumstances had spread a noble |